Western Standard - CORY MORGAN： Alberta Teachers’ Strike Looms

00:00:00.000 Speaking of picketing morons, well, I mean, these ones aren't quite as dim, but they're 1.00

00:00:09.280 just as entitled. The teachers are going on strike next week. It looks like it's almost 1.00

00:00:12.620 inevitable. They turned down a deal that would make them the second highest paid in Western

00:00:17.140 Canada, capping out after five years, I believe it is, and getting up to $114,000. Don't forget

00:00:23.340 you get July off, August off, a break in November off, Christmas break off, spring break off,

00:00:28.160 sick days, benefits, an incredible match pension plan, and they're whining. I know it's not

00:00:35.560 an easy job. That's why I wouldn't want to do it. But I also know that they're bloody

00:00:41.740 well paid well enough. Plus the government promised to give 3,000 more teachers. You can't just

00:00:45.800 pull them out of the air. It's an addition, but it wasn't enough. Why? I don't know. They're

00:00:50.020 just greedy, to be blunt. That's what it is. Let's talk about who a lot of the teachers

00:00:54.340 are. Teaching is a calling. We know that. All of us who went through school know we had

00:01:00.200 teachers who were incredible. Some who wholeheartedly embraced what they were doing. They loved what

00:01:06.240 they were doing. They saw it as a role to take on, to make children better functional

00:01:11.660 as they grow, to become adults and live a good life in society. And there were some who

00:01:18.900 were just mailing it in. And more and more and more of them are mailing it in. I tracked

00:01:23.700 this all the way back down to our post-secondary institutions, shoving kids into all over the

00:01:28.540 place, the liberal arts programs, which fine if you want to take them. But eventually people

00:01:33.800 with liberal arts degrees get tired of making lattes. You know, that philosophy degree just

00:01:39.360 didn't pay off. So then they upgrade to a teaching certificate because they know that they can get

00:01:44.560 all those summer holidays, a good pension and all the rest because it's a short leap to go

00:01:49.200 there and make decent money. The problem again, though, is they aren't in it because they love

00:01:54.920 it. They're in it because they feel they have to. So then the motivation starts turning into,

00:01:59.060 I just want to get as much out of this as I possibly can while I'm here. That's why they're

00:02:03.420 getting run ragged. Yeah. When you do a job you can't stand, it gets a lot more tiresome. This system

00:02:10.840 needs to change. The teachers union is holding parents hostage. And it's interesting. I was

00:02:19.800 listening. I pained myself by listening to, you know, talk radio. I still like to keep up on things

00:02:24.480 before I come in to hear the studio in the office. I listened to the talk scandalously saying,

00:02:28.500 the government had a plan before the strike. They already had a plan in place to give money to parents

00:02:34.320 to help pay for childcare to carry them over during the strike. Well, yes, you should have a plan.

00:02:39.920 And we've seen this coming down the pipe for months. You know, you guys would have crapped

00:02:44.060 all over the government if they didn't have a plan. But what it is indicating is the government's

00:02:48.000 willing to wait this one out. They're not ready to quickly capitulate. They're making it clear that

00:02:52.540 this sucks, but parents, your kids are going to be home for a while. Their education is going to be

00:02:57.360 stunted because the teachers got greedy and they're going to help you a little bit while you wait this

00:03:03.020 out. But I think hopefully, hopefully it's starting the framework for changing the whole system.

00:03:09.920 One of the things we need to get out of the system is the bloody unions. Now, the right for organized

00:03:13.520 labor is an important one. We can't get rid of it. I don't believe in illegalizing unions. I do believe

00:03:17.300 in right to work legislation, though. Let people choose. I believe in merit pay. And I very much

00:03:22.560 believe in school choice. We should have a true voucher system. And if you're not familiar with that,

00:03:29.360 what that means is, let's say there's this amount per child, whatever it might be, call it, I mean,

00:03:33.820 this is just ballpark, call it 10,000 a year per child. That's what it's worth. And the parent chooses

00:03:39.320 a school and they can dedicate that voucher. And those dollars will go to that school, whether it's

00:03:45.980 homeschooling, whether it's a private school, whether it's a public school, whether it's a charter school,

00:03:50.720 whether it's a religious school, it doesn't matter. And people say, oh, private tax dollars will go to

00:03:55.500 private institutions. So what? They always do. Do you think they buy their stationary from a socialist

00:04:01.580 government-owned corporation? We spend tax dollars on private provision of services at times. Yes,

00:04:07.740 that happens in the healthcare system, too, and it needs to happen more. Add a competitive element

00:04:12.900 to these schools. People say, it's unfair. The rich kids go to the private schools. Oh, get over it.

00:04:17.740 Get over it. The politics of envy, you can't raise everybody up with the politics of envy. All you can

00:04:22.500 do is drag everybody down to the same level of misery. It's the crabs in the bucket. You don't like

00:04:27.700 that your neighbor can afford to take their kid to a better school? Then work a second job.

00:04:30.740 Climb the corporate scrotum pole. Make more money so that you can do that and put your kids in a

00:04:36.020 better spot. If you can't, well, that's the way it goes. But your kid gets the exact same amount of

00:04:40.740 dollars as that kid does. That's true equality. In fact, you, if you were the low-income person

00:04:50.100 complaining, probably paid a heck of a lot less into the system that led to that amount of dollars 0.63

00:04:55.260 going into the voucher for your kid than the other person.

00:04:59.820 And then we can get the diversity of schools. I love it when listening to these educators,

00:05:04.060 they don't like being called teachers anywhere. They're teachers. Get over it.

00:05:07.260 Talk about, well, we have all the diverse kids, all the diverse needs. They're all different. We have

00:05:10.620 to have different setups. And I agree with that. That's absolutely true. All sorts of kids respond

00:05:14.700 to different teaching environments. But then as soon as you actually propose changing it by having a

00:05:19.260 variety of schools and school choices, suddenly the teachers, you know, oh, no, no, no, no, no. We all

00:05:22.780 have to have them in the same standardized schools. We just want more money. That's the reality of what

00:05:27.100 it always comes down to. We want more money. No, I want more schools. And part of it is the schools

00:05:34.860 aren't responding and balancing to where the students need to be because it's too bloody hard to operate or

00:05:41.820 move or shift or adapt to things in a union controlled environment. Inner city schools in the bigger

00:05:47.900 cities are actually underpopulated. Whereas the ones in the suburbs where everybody's moving are

00:05:53.900 overloaded. Well, let's work on rebalancing that. Let's work on changing it. Let's have new schools

00:05:59.980 springing up in areas where there are need through private investment. If the voucher follows the kid,

00:06:04.060 take some of that pressure off specialized schools. That's the way to go. But that terrifies the unions. 0.90

00:06:09.660 Remember the unions, they don't care about the kids guys. I'm not saying teachers are heartless and hate

00:06:13.980 kids. But when you talk to the union group, guys, they're there for the teachers. There's no other

00:06:21.500 two ways about it. You know, some of those numbers going on, I believe it's about 50 some thousand

00:06:30.220 teachers in Alberta. If you divide it up, there's like a teacher for every 20 students. So they scream

00:06:36.460 about alleged classes with 40 kids in them. But you know what? They've screamed about that since the 40s,

00:06:40.460 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and up to now. They've always screamed about that. Some schools, if you

00:06:45.900 look around, because of that imbalance between inner and suburban areas, you will be able to find

00:06:50.540 overcrowded classes. If you look hard enough, you'll find some classes where there's one teacher with 10

00:06:54.620 kids. So why don't we try to maintain the balance more instead of just tossing more money at them? 0.99

00:06:59.260 Well, because that's all they're asking for is more money. They're just pretending it's about the kids.

00:07:05.020 And they're playing the nasty games. This gets back to what I was talking about when they're

00:07:08.860 doing things like stacking the microphones at an Alberta Next panel. Remember, the kid came up

00:07:13.260 talking teachers union talking points. These are the tricks they pay. Take a 16 year old kid,

00:07:18.060 stick him at a microphone with a scripted thing to read. Do you think your average 16 year old kid

00:07:22.780 happened to know? Oh, look, half an hour ago, here's the exact number that voted in the strike

00:07:27.420 vote. Amazing, man, that kid's tuned in, isn't he? Turns out he's a kid who's also organizing a student

00:07:32.300 walkout in support of the teachers union. And it turns out that kid right afterwards went and did a video

00:07:38.540 interview sit down with the head Ninchy, the head of the NDP. This was just the run of the milk

00:07:43.260 student who was concerned with a question who got shut down at an event. No, he wasn't. He was a kid

00:07:47.180 who was trained and put there as a plant by the teachers union to try and sidetrack an event

00:07:51.580 into something completely unrelated to it. So yeah, we've got a big battle coming up, guys. The posties

00:07:56.940 will be the easier one to take on. The teachers are going to be a tougher one. But I think it's time to

00:08:00.460 starve them out a bit. Make them a little hungry. Give them a month or two off. I know the parents are 0.94

00:08:05.660 going to have to suffer. But you know what? When the teachers get a couple of months off,

00:08:09.260 which can add up to $20,000 and more, that's going to cut into their summer vacation, isn't it?

00:08:14.940 Maybe they'll start to see a little more reason, won't they?

00:08:18.780 Start pretending to care about the students and get back to work.

Western Standard - October 05, 2025

CORY MORGAN： Alberta Teachers’ Strike Looms

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